Jewelry is often given at special occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, and other memorable life events. Those that receive such gifts often wish to preserve and relive these memories; however, the moment itself is often not recorded or the recording is lost among numerous other recordings thereby losing its intended close association with the jewelry.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology commonly used for tracking purposes, often to replace bar codes. RFID tags contain an antenna and memory that stores data. Identifying or reading the data is accomplished using an RFID reader. RFID tags are widespread in the retail industry by helping stores keep track of inventory. RFID tags are also used in the cattle industry to monitor feeding and tracking potential spread of disease through recording and monitoring movement of individual animals over time. Near field communication (NFC) is a more finely honed version of RFID. It operates within a maximum range of about 4-10 cm and can operate in one- or two-way communication. NFC communication involves the modulation of a magnetic field between two devices, commonly referred to as an initiator and target. The initiator generates the RF field and the target modulates the field using power from the initiator. NFC-enabled features are now commonly integrated into smart phones. This technology is being adopted for financial transactions where touching a NFC smart phone to a NFC checkout terminal, instructs payment, thereby replacing credit cards. In addition, data can be shared directly between NFC smart phones by just tapping phones together.
RFID tags have also been incorporated into pearls. In WO2005/015986, a method of making a pearl is demonstrated where an RFID chip is fixed to the surface of the nucleus before the nucleus is inserted into the pearl oyster. This prevents identifying information specific to each pearl from being erased for tracking or classification purposes. Similarly, CN102332106B provides an approach to identify and manage pearls by embedding an RFID chip in a pearl for identification purposes. The RFID chip is added after boring into the pearl because the chip could be easily damaged if provided as part of a nucleus.
A challenge with NFC antenna design is that the performance of the NFC antenna is significantly degraded when positioning the NFC chip near metals. While RFID tags have been used to track pearls, pearls are nonconductive. That is, the nacre coating does not conduct electricity. To this end, the mere substitution of the pearl's nacre coating with a highly electrically conductive metal, such as silver or gold, is not appropriate for an NFC embedded chip since it prevents communication between an NFC chip and an NFC enabled device.
Traditional jewelry design includes a gemstone mounted to a bezel. In further designs, a gemstone is mounted to a gemstone setting (also referred to as a bezel setting) and the bezel setting is affixed to a bezel. The bezel is then joined to different elements to define the type of jewelry. For instance, adding the bezel to a chain can form a necklace or bracelet with pendant and soldering the bezel to a hoop can form a ring. In conventional jewelry design the bezel is formed from a metal such as a precious metal. This is frequently gold or silver. However, it has been found that positioning an NFC chip within a same plane as a surrounding jeweler's metal, such as gold or silver prevents communication between the NFC chip and NFC enabled device. Accordingly, there is a need to develop a new article of jewelry that permits NFC communication between an embedded NFC chip and an NFC enabled device and that incorporates precious metals such as silver and gold.